There’s a handful of ballads too--the surest sign of maturity--but just when we think they’ve given up the pacy numbers forever, they sucker-punch us at the death with the perfect one-two combo of ‘Unwanted Place’ and ‘Young’.

Surfing Strange is a tight and coherent little album whose greatest strength lies in its youthful energy and sense of the ups and downs of the early twenties--the lows of uncertainty and malaise, and the highs of excitement and anticipation.

This is a really fun record with a lot of sounds borrowed from the 90's. When it first started playing I thought the Superchunk guy hadThis is a really fun record with a lot of sounds borrowed from the 90's. When it first started playing I thought the Superchunk guy had started a new band, but every track after that had its own character, many based (on purpose, i don't know) on a different 90's band. Unfortunately, along with a lot of cool songs, there's a mix of 90's radio-punk style that IMO should stay in the past. Anyway, it's worth checking out and the band's obviously talented enough to release an amazing album sometime in the future.…Collapse